215
3 people in Madhya Pradesh, India, died while stuck in a THIRTY TWO hour traffic jam along an intercity highway. (www.bhaskarenglish.in)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/fuckcars@lemmy.world
25 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The highway in question is cratered with potholes due to shoddy, cut-rate roadwork that disintegrates at the first sign of inclement weather.

The worst part? There's a train between those same two cities, but the state of the railways in this country is beyond the pale, ironically because the government is pretending to invest in shiny new roads that...are cratered with potholes and disintegrate at the first sign of inclement weather.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

I don't know how much it costs to keep the majority of routes, subsidized as they are.

Passenger transport is subsidized by goods transport. And the more expensive classes aren't as subsidized.

Maybe the vanity projects with high-ticket prices will help with that.

But previous ministers didn't need to do all that! And most Vande Bharaths or whatever run with empty seats, while general compartments on normal trains are overcrowded. So there is a misallocation of resources.

I believe the bigger expenditure perennially has been on personnel

I don't know if they are correctly allotting staff to various roles. After one recent accident, it was found that the safety section was understaffed. But in any case, staff can be reassigned, while an unnecessary infrastructure project cannot later be repurposed to do something necessary.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    All good points. I mentioned their lakhs of employees, because that bill keeps rising and probably faster than income. It is the public sector - they will waste money on unnecessary things - but they need to keep up with the personnel bill additionally. That combination means they need to generate money from somewhere.

    I think government funding patterns have changed, and ministries have been looking to generate funds rather than be funded by the exchequer. Think BSNL, NHAI. So too IR?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent